Advertisement

Bruce Arians dodges question about Jameis Winston's future

Share this article

The uncertain status of Jameis Winston has been the elephant in the room all season long for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Actually, it’s been more like an elephant sitting on your lap and refusing to get up.

Ever since the Bucs hired Bruce Arians to take over for Dirk Koetter, the biggest question has been whether or not Arians — the alleged quarterback guru who’s worked with players like Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and Andrew Luck over the course of his NFL coaching career — could save the career of the former number one overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner, who is playing on the fifth and final year of his rookie contract.

Winston has put up big passing numbers this year, and could make a run at 5,000 yards. But, as has been the case since he came into the league in 2015, turnovers have been the biggest issue for the Bucs quarterback. So far this season, Winston’s thrown a league-high 20 interceptions, and since coming into the league he’s turned it over an NFL-high 101 times.

Today, Arians was asked point blank if he’d endorse Winston returning beyond this year if Bucs management asked for an evaluation this week.

“I’m gonna pass on that one… I’m gonna wait until the end of December.”

I doubt any of us expected Arians to come right out and give a definitive answer one way or the other, but it’s clear that these last four games will be the most important of Winston’s career. Even if Tampa Bay chooses to go in a different direction and let Winston leave, a strong finish to the season would be a great way to convince other quarterback-needy teams to take a chance on him, even if only on a one-year deal.

The Bucs welcome the Colts to town in Week 14 and then face off against the Lions, Texans and Falcons to finish the season. Those last three opponents rank near the bottom of the league in pass defense, so Winston will certainly get the chance to put up big numbers.

Comments

More Stories

Tom Brady will be taking over a Bucs offense that ranked third overall last season despite the erratic play of quarterback Jameis Winston, who finished 2019 with 5,109 passing yards to go along with 33 touchdowns and 30 interceptions.

Despite the number of turnovers, Winston actually set the franchise record for passing yards and passing touchdowns in a season. And while Tom Brady is himself a member of the 5,000-yard passing club, he may have a better shot of breaking Winston's touchdown record in 2020.

Over his 20-year career, Brady has passed for 33 or more touchdowns six times, most recently...

From The WebAds by Zergnet

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers picked up two running backs in April's NFL draft in Ke'Shawn Vaughn (third round) and Raymond Calais (seventh round) to help bolster a backfield that lost Peyton Barber this offseason in free agency.

Vaughn and Calais will be joining incumbent starter Ronald Jones, who finished his 2019 sophomore campaign with 724 rushing yards to go along with six touchdowns. But the Bucs could definitely use an experienced veteran back to help their offense and new quarterback Tom Brady, and one name that keeps coming up is former Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman.

The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted sports leagues around the world, and if and when the NFL kicks off its 2020 season, one of the proposed ideas to ensure public safety is playing games in empty stadiums. While that might not be the ideal situation for either the league or its fans, it's an option that's on the table at this point.

Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians spoke at length on a Zoom call with reporters yesterday on a wide variety of topics, from the national protests to his new quarterback Tom Brady. And, when talking about the possibility of...